A variety of medical devices have been developed for endovascular repair. For instance various methods and devices have been developed to repair aneurysmal or occluded branches of the aorta. Devices and techniques have also been developed to bypass or cross-connect between adjacent arteries or other channels of the body. For instance, anastomosis procedures to join two or more arteries to that branch from the aortic arch are known. Commonly such techniques involve clamping and partial or total occlusion of aortic blood vessels. The resultant interruption of blood flow increases stress on the heart, potentially causing cardiac morbidity. Occlusion of blood flow also can lead to ischemia for downstream organs and extremities potentially leading to other complications. Furthermore, the act of placing occlusive clamps across diseased blood vessels risks injury because the aorta itself is often diseased. In addition, plaque along the arterial wall is potentially disturbed to embolise, which is highly undesirable.
There is a need to provide improved medical devices that facilitate the continuation of blood flow during bypass or anastomosis procedures. There is also a need for medical devices that ameliorate at least some of the disadvantages associated with existing procedures, including those mentioned above.
Throughout this specification, the term “distal” with respect to a portion of the aorta, a deployment device or an endograft means the end of the aorta, deployment device or endograft further away in the direction of blood flow from the heart and the term “proximal” means the portion of the aorta deployment device or end of the endograft nearer to the heart in the direction of blood flow. When applied to other vessels, similar terms such as caudal and cranial should be understood.